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63 About this deal
Who is to blame? In the hailstorm of bad NHS news, the government and its press outriders are trying, with some success, to shift guilt on to the NHS itself. The public is no longer clapping, they say, with only 36% of voters telling the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey that they are satisfied with the NHS. That figure should frighten any government – unless people are persuaded to blame the NHS instead of its political masters. Look at the groundswell of rightwing commentary blaming “lazy” GPs and “overpaid bureaucrats”, with articles headlined “The public have lost faith in our NHS religion” (Daily Telegraph) and “Are we falling out of love with the NHS?” (Spectator). Will this strategy of shifting the blame work? Probably not. Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator, wrote in the Daily Telegraph on Friday: “After years banging on about the case for low taxation – the quaint idea that societies are fairer and stronger when people are allowed to keep more of the money they earn – the Tories have now given up. The danger for the Conservatives may not be that many voters see their power grabs as sinister, but that they find them risible. Incompetence in government is now one of the Tories’ most widely recognised characteristics. Another is their discontent with the society they have ruled for so long. The more they rage and try to act against “wokeness” and other culture war adversaries, the more they inadvertently admit that they have failed to reshape the country as they wished. After a similar stretch in office, more effective governments such as Blair’s and Thatcher’s no longer needed to fight constant battles, as they had beaten most of their enemies. What is beyond doubt is that many Tory MPs are now very worried indeed that, after 12 years in government, the period of Conservative rule could be nearing an end. Sir Bob Neill, one of those who has demanded a leadership contest, told the Observer on Saturday that the mix of leadership issues over parties and the absence of clear direction was potentially lethal for his party. “When you put the trust issue and the identity issue together, you do have a pretty toxic mix as far as voters are concerned.” Ourground-breaking recycled t-shirts are made from 100% recycled materials and are, to our knowledge, the first commercially produced t-shirts made from recycled cotton. The fabrics are produced in India from 60% recycled organic cotton and 40% recycled polyester. The cotton waste from normal production is saved ("salvaged") and shredded until broken into individual fibres. These are then blended with locally recycled polyester and spun into yarn. The knitting, dying and manufacturing are carried out in established facilities in Tamil Nadu, renowned for high ethical labour standards and low environmental impact. These products are certified under the Global Recycle Standard (GRS) and the Organic Content Standard (OCS), and carry the appropriate certification marks, licensed by the Control Union
The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture,” she said. The prime minister responded initially by telling MPs he was “humbled”, before defiantly rewriting the ministerial code so that ministers would not always be expected to resign for breaking rules. To the astonishment of many in his own party he also removed a section from the code about the importance of ethics in government. These have been confusing and, for many, dispiriting times to be a Tory MP. Many confide privately that it is not just Johnson’s behaviour, the rule-breaking and misleading over parties that is difficult to defend and grinding them down. At the same time, they say, there is also a broader issue – a wider identity crisis – that his premiership has created.In support of her t-shirt, which cheekily imitates the Tesco logo, she wrote: “Cannot get behind a man who shames single mums and their children, uses casual racism, gambles with the NHS and gives zero f***s about our children’s future.” Has Britain ever had a government with so little support and yet such an appetite for expanding its powers? Less than a quarter of the electorate plans to vote Conservative, according to the polls, making this one of our most unpopular governments ever. Behind this stark figure looms an even deeper dissatisfaction, built up by 13 years of scandals, lethal policy failures, broken promises and out-of-their-depth prime ministers. Whatever the Tories offer between now and the election – probably a repeat of this week’s tax cuts based on dubious public spending forecasts – a decisive majority of voters may have already made up their minds against them. Conservatism in Britain and the US has failed to recapture the relatively broad support it enjoyed in the 80s under Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, with comfortable election victories becoming rarities. So the right has increasingly come to rely on democracy-distorting measures: gerrymandering, restricting the right to vote and designing campaigns to win office with smaller and smaller shares of the vote. Conservatism has also tried to magnify its narrowing appeal by merging with, or turning into, populism, a form of politics that often relies on sleights of hand – such as “strong” leaders claiming to represent a whole country when actually they are politicians like any others, with weaknesses and limited support bases. But the other is the consequence of his own past success. By leading the Conservatives to an 80-seat majority at the 2019 general election, with promises to “get Brexit done”, and by exploiting fears of a Jeremy Corbyn government, Johnson broke through the red wall and inherited a complex and incoherent coalition of Tory voters with wildly differing priorities and needs.
Wednesday had seen the senior civil servant Sue Gray publish her damning verdict on “Partygate”. Despite repeated denials from Johnson that any parties had taken place, Gray methodically laid out details of 16 events – several attended by the prime minister himself – with examples of excessive drinking, mistreatment of cleaning and other staff, and general Covid rule-breaking at the heart of power. After Sunak’s announcement, Tory commentators despaired that the party seemed to have ditched its commitment to low taxation. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said last week that in little over a year Sunak had imposed tax rises similar in scale to those introduced over 10 years of Gordon Brown’s chancellorship, leaving the UK with the highest overall tax burden since the 1960s. The windfall tax on energy companies has been denounced on the Tory right. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PAAll our garments are ethically produced: read our full ethical policy here. Size Guide (N.b. all sizes are approximate) Size Boris Johnson ‘got Brexit done’ but in doing so, inherited a broad coalition of voters who are difficult to satisfy. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP At RedMolotov.com we specialise in producing high-quality, ethically-sourced t-shirts. We pride ourselves in using the best materials we can find, which is why our t-shirts will not fall out of shape after a few washes like other cheaper varieties you may find for sale elsewhere. Last week the government ended Covid restrictions and free tests in England, though infections have hit their highest ever level, and the Office for National Statistics says that 1.5m people are reporting long Covid, which will have unknown consequences for the NHS. The Guardian has revealed how children’s mental services have been overwhelmed, a situation worsened by Covid. But for all the NHS’s troubles, hold on to this: in the national patient survey in late 2021, most people report that they had good treatment, with 75% approval for hospitals, 83% for GPs and 88% for cancer. That suggests Tory attempts to rubbish the NHS will fail. The public complains about access to services, and for that they blame the government.
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